Once And For All
by Carol Molliniere
Summary: After a hundred years, the Guardians are back up against an evil which has, somehow, caused the black Moon to turn yellow once again. Sequel to "Will They Let Us Down" and "The First Guardian".
1. Moon

**Once And For All**

**By: Carol Molliniere**

**A/N: The last installment of the ROTG/SE crossover AU (which I am going to call "The First Guardian") is now up! In which secrets come to light! In which the Guardians have to battle an enemy thought dead! In which...ah, forget it, if I said anything more, I would be spoiling you.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is copyrighted.**

**"The First Guardian" AU is written before I knew of the events of the fourth GoC book. Whatever. This is fanfiction.**

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><p>Up in the sky hung a black moon.<p>

It had been that was for a century, and the heroes that battled a monster on it were already gone, save for a select few. These few would try and make sure that nothing of the sort ever happened again.

And if it did happen again, then they would be prepared.

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><p>It was a seemingly normal night when it happened.<p>

The black Moon was there, just as always. Its eye watched the inhabitants of the Earth, being the only source of light from the sky aside from a few stars. All was quiet.

Then a shooting star appeared in the sky, It traveled close to the Moon and disappeared.

And as it disappeared, a flash of heat struck the cold night. At the same time, the black vanished from the Moon, and it became a bright yellow face again, laughing into the night.

Another shooting star appeared, this time flying away from the Moon. And the few that survived the Battle on the Moon were in shock.

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><p>In the Himalayas, a man looked up from the relics he was examining to the Moon. Upon seeing the bright yellow Moon, his eyes widened.<p>

"No...it can't be!" he gasped, and he put a hand to his heart. Either by the shock or by the low air pressure, the man felt lightheaded, and he staggered, falling into the snow. Puffing out white breaths, his blue eyes shone as he realized what must be done.

"I have to warn the others," he muttered, and then he left, his cloak fluttering in the wind.


	2. Warning

**(A/N: And the sequel to "The First Guardian" begins...now!)**

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><p>One could agree, on a scientific note, that flowers turn into fruits with seeds inside. Flowers don't lay eggs with little sproutlings inside. Only animals lay eggs.<p>

Well, to be fair, the eggs that sprang out of these flowers didn't hatch to become plants, and an animal – if you could call him that – owned these flowers.

The Easter Bunny watched the eggs emerge from colored petals, grow legs, and scramble off to fulfill their destiny of becoming Easter eggs. It had been this way for a hundred Easters now – and not one step out of line. They sprang out perfectly, were dyed and painted perfectly, and waddled into place perfectly until a lucky child found them on Easter day.

"_What's that over there?"_

He blinked, suddenly remembering a little girl's laughter from five hundred years ago.

"_Oh, that's a beauty!"_

Bunnymund shook his head, even as a bitter feeling washed over him – the same feeling he had when all of the Pookas had died except for him.

The air in the Warren suddenly shifted. Bunny looked up and saw a shimmering array of the Northern Lights above him, and it meant only one thing: the Guardians are to assemble yet again.

He stood and tapped on the ground with his hind paw, and as a tunnel appeared he jumped into it. Then it closed behind him.

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><p>The Sun was beginning to rise in Africa. A girl sat on railing of the terrace of her house, watching the sky thoughtfully. Being a late sleeper, she had seen what had happened to the Moon and was wondering what it meant.<p>

Something landed on the railing next to her. Slowly, the girl turned her head...and came face-to-face with a lovely glowing lady whose light was like that of a star. The spectral girl waved a hand at the child who stared at her in wonder.

"Hello," Katherine softly greeted, and slowly again, the girl nodded. Katherine adjusted the green book under her arm and was about to sit down on the railing when the little girl looked back to the sky again, and the spectral girl had to look as well. Bands of rainbow-like streams fluttered across the sky – the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights. Her eyes widened, then she looked back at the little girl.

"It was nice to meet you," she told the girl, then bowed politely before flying off in the direction of the North Pole.

"Goodbye, Starlight!" the little girl exclaimed.

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><p>The Moon was still out in Anchorage, and the people were still trying to reconcile their minds with what had just happened. In fact, one person was still staring at the Moon in disbelief, and perhaps also in melancholy.<p>

Snow fell around Jack Frost as he looked at the bright yellow sneering face in the sky, and he pulled his hood further over his head. A slight twinge of pain came up his arm, and he shuddered.

_Why did the black disappear?_

_Moreover, why is the Fearling reacting to it...?_

Maybe it was the fact that the Kishin had been sealed on that Moon for a hundred years now. Maybe it was because of the Kishin's participation in Pitch's plans 500 years ago. That was probably the reason why the Fearling poison inside him was only affecting him now. And it only fgave him a feeling of dread the more he thought about it.

Something big was coming, something that was strong enough to make the cover of the black blood disappear. But what?

Jack blinked, and then looked above him as trails of the Northern Lights started to appear in the night sky. He smirked.

_Well, looks like I'm about to find out._

The winter spirit stood up, and called out, "Wind!" As if in greeting, the Wind began to blow. He started running, while saying, "Take me to the North Pole!" The Wind blew again, stronger this time, and it was enough to lift him up and make him fly to his destination.

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><p>The first to come into the North Pole after Santa Claus sent out the aurora borealis was the Easter Bunny, who had immediately tried to interrogate him on what had happened, and was consequently told to wait until the other Guardians arrived. The next (much to Bunny's surprise) was Jack Frost, who kept a cool exterior but North knew that he was secretly excited about this meeting.<p>

After Jack came, so did the Tooth Fairy, with a few of her mini-fairies, who had come back after Tooth had retrieved her centuries-old tooth box from Lord Death. (Somehow, his father had managed to track down and safekeep quite a few of the Guardians' artifacts aside from Katherine's book.) Then the Sandman flew in on a little dreamsand train, with the spectral girl – now known as Starlight instead of Mother Goose, due to her luminescence and the lack of a goose – riding in the carriage after him. North welcomed them in as well, then looked around.

"Now," he put a hand to his beard, "we still need one more Guardian..."

As he had been saying this, someone appeared from behind him, and Katherine, Jack, and Sandy started snickering. North noticed this and, with a sly smile, turned around to see gleaming green eyes staring at him.

"There you are, Nightlight," he greeted, and the spectral boy smiled.

The Guardians had been surprised, too, when Nightlight reappeared after Maka Albarn's death. Lord Death had concluded, after a thorough analysis of the situation, that there was a great deal of magic involved in the inexplicable bond between Nightlight and Maka. However, it was very old magic – so old that not even the books from North's library contained any information on them. They came to agree months after Maka's death that they would leave the matter well alone. Nightlight was back, and that was what mattered.

Once all of them were settled, North began. "So, you all know what happened to the Moon this night. Let me explain what it means: the black blood covering on the Moon that kept the Kishin sealed tight is no more."

The Guardians' faces were all filled with horror of varying degrees at this point. Would they have to fight Asura again? Would they lose again? Katherine in particular felt her heart sink to her stomach as she looked at Nightlight – at the center of his chest, to be precise.

"We still don't know much about this yet," North continued, "but I can feel it – in my belly – that this is very serious thing we are dealing with."

"So, what're we gonna do?" Bunny asked, raising his eyebrows. "Get into battle gear and fight 'em to the death; maybe even call Lord Death and tell'em to bring in the cavalry?"

"Maybe!" North's eyes shone mischeviously. "To the sleigh!"

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><p><strong>So, what'd you think? Pretty neat, huh? What? You're tired of all the sequels? Well, too bad.<strong>


	3. Meeting

**(A/N: Finally, here's the next chapter! All I can say, though, is that one should expect sporadic updates when waiting for this fanfiction in particular.)**

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><p>Katherine's first time of getting into North's sleigh in a long time wasn't as easy as it seemed. She was about to tell them that she was going to take Kailash instead, but then<em> Pitch killed Kailash<em> came back to her and she just opted for the sleigh instead, feeling a pang once again for the Himalayan snow goose. As for Bunny, he was overjoyed when North said there wasn't going to be much room left for him in the sleigh, what with Tooth and Nightlight coming along as well, and so he got to take his tunnels. He wasn't going to sacrifice his lunch for a crazy ride, after all.

The Guardians' rendezvous would be the top of the staircase leading up to Shibusen. With that in mind, Bunny set off in his tunnels, and North snapped the reins for his reindeer to pull the sleigh along, and off they went.

The spectral girl became so caught up in the thrill of the ice tunnels that she almost forgot about Kailash's loss as the cold wind rushed in her face. Nightlight and Sandy threw their hands up somewhere in the middle of the ride, and Jack even cheered when the loop-de-loops started. Tooth was trying to hang on for as long as possible, yet her face did not show her subtle fear.

Katherine looked around her as the sleigh finally reached the ramp and went faster in the moment before it went airborne. Even though she had seen the scene before her a million times when she flew to the North Pole, the exhiliration left over from the ride made her think it was a little different. She looked down, folded her arms under her chin, and smiled in nostalgia.

_I used to see the same landscape on Kailash's back as well._

She sighed. Even after a hundred years, she had still not gotten used to being called "Starlight" by the children of Earth, now that Kailash was gone. Sure, her stories were still there, and that was one thing that hadn't changed about her role, but everything else did and it wasn't easy to let go when all the old drawings in her green book were signed "Mother Goose".

Nightlight peeked over her shoulder, and she looked at him. "Don't worry about it," she reassured him. After a moment of consideration he nodded, but remained by her side. She glanced at him again, and she listed another change to contemplate: how Nightlight didn't really ever glow anymore, and neither did he fly all that much. It was as if they had traded places since the battle with the Kishin 500 years ago.

It gave her a sense of purpose, though, now that she knew they were up against a powerful enemy. _"I can protect him now,"_ she thought, _"like he protected me back then."_ Filled with this resolve, she looked back at the snowy horizon before them.

"Alright everyone, time for shortcut!" North called out as he pulled out a snowglobe. At this, Jack eagerly went to the front of the sleigh while Tooth adjusted herself in her seat, preparing for them to speed up yet again.

"Death City," The driver told the snowglobe, shaking it, and inside the glass formed a little replica of the aforementioned city in the desert. He threw it ahead of the reindeer, creating a portal, and he snapped the reins. His passengers were thrown back yet again as they entered the portal.

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><p>Several flashes of light later, a wave of heat hit their faces, a clear sign that they were in a desert – in fact Death Valley. Right in front of the Guardians was their destination, with its red spires sticking out symmetrically.<p>

North flew the sleigh straight to the school, catching the attention of several kids who believed in Santa Claus. They pointed out their windows at the red sleigh and flying reindeer with wonder on their faces. North, noticing them, laughed heartily and even waved a little. With that, they came to the entrance of Shibusen, where Bunny was waiting for them, painting a few eggs.

"There you are," he said as the sleigh pulled over in front of him. "Let's get this over with."

The Guardians trotted through the empty halls, hoping that they were on the right route towards the Death Room. Somehow it turned out that they weren't; and they ended up getting lost quite a few times, and it was nearly 3 AM before one of Tooth's fairies finally found them a route to the big black door that led to where they wanted to go.

When they finally stood (or levitated, in the case of Tooth and Katherine) in front of the black door, each of them felt a degree of trepidation that they had never felt before. What was behind the door, was most certainly Lord Death...but why did that make them feel so nervous?

The spectral girl closed her eyes, feeling a wave of dread wash over her. She clenched her fists together, then opened her eyes and gulped the feelings down. Now wasn't the time to be afraid. Now was the time to act.

She looked down at Sandy, and realized that he had been looking concernedly at everyone when they paused. He looked up at her, and she nodded. "We're fine, Sandy. Let's go." The Sandman nodded, and put a hand to the door. It opened quite easily, as if it had been unlocked all this time...

It was as if someone was waiting for them.

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><p>The air of dread only felt thicker on the Guardians as they came through the hallway leading to the center of the Death Room. Jack felt his stomach lurch whenever he looked up at the guillotine blades, poised to come down whenever they so pleased. He held his staff tighter. Normally he felt like he should make a weird remark about the furnishing of this place, but his companions had been too quiet, even North. He frowned and looked around. The blue sky around them seemed almost threatening.<p>

His eyebrows creased, and that was when his ears suddenly caught the sound of conversation.

"I know what happened as well as you do. We have a serious problem on our hands," an illustrious voice said, presumably at the center of the room. It continued, "The enemy we're up against is certainly one with power like no other."

Another voice, too faint to the tone or what it said, spoke. Jack noticed that he had been craning his neck to listen, and that Katherine was coming close to him. "It's Lord Death," she looked to him. "He's talking to someone." The winter spirit nodded, trying to be polite in spite of the Fearling poison which he was now aware was acting up inside his system.

He exhaled, and put a hand to his forehead. It seemed that the closer he got, the more the poison would make him feel disturbed. Jack glanced down at his staff, noticing that it was glowing more brightly than normal. He shook his head and tried to get a hold of himself. Something that sounded like shimmering came to his left, and he saw in the corner of his eye Sandy patting his leg, trying to calm him down. They shared a look of understanding for a little while.

_Breathe._

Jack did.

After what seemed like an agonizing amount of time (though in reality it was just five minutes), they came to the center. Two cloaked figures stood at the platform, and the taller one of them was standing directly in front of a large ornate mirror. Staring over his shoulder, Jack was shocked to see a reflection of himself staring back at him, along with a reflection of the other Guardians. The glass then turned off, as if it were a television screen, and the cloaked figure turned to them, revealing the skull mask that dominated Death City. The figure seemed to regard them with an air befitting a king.

"As you know, the Guardians have seen it, too," Lord Death told the person next to him, and Jack noticed how the person didn't turn around to greet them. If anything, the person looked remarkably reluctant to see the newcomers.

"What do you think has caused this to happen?" North asked. "What's happened to the Moon?"

"We don't have the full information yet," the reaper said, "but this man here claims he can shed a little light on the situation." He gestured to the man next to him. North looked at him, and held out a hand. "Well, tell us," he said.

The man's shoulders slumped, and then he turned around, pulling the hood off his head.

And when he did, Katherine knew the reason for her dread; and Jack knew why the Fearling was reacting so strongly.

Standing in front of them was Tsar Lunar.


	4. Planning

**(A/N: I'm so sorry I didn't post this chapter. Oh well. Win some, lose some. Hope this clears up most of the sheet.)**

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><p>"YOU!"<p>

A flash of blue lightning sprang out, and Tsar Lunar dodged just in time to avoid getting frozen to the platform.

"Jack, no!" Tooth flew over and hooked her arms under the winter spirit's shoulders, restraining him. Jack struggled against her grasp, trying to lash out at his target.

"FIVE HUNDRED YEARS, DAMMIT!" he screamed. "YOU'VE BEEN ALIVE ALL THIS TIME? YOU...YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD! WHY ARE YOU ALIVE, HUH? WHY?!" Trying to hold him further back, Tooth's eyes widened as she realized that the ice on the platform was a mixture of ice and shadows. She looked to him and found that his own eyes were now dark blue.

As Jack was flailing about in Tooth's hold, Lord Death stepped forward and, with a wave of his hand, summoned dark tendrils out of his robe to tie Jack's elbows together. With that, the winter spirit dropped his staff, though Tooth continued to hold on to him. "Jack Frost," the reaper spoke, "get a hold of yourself." The Guardian blinked, and then groaned, holding his head. When he opened his eyes, they were ice blue once more.

Yet barely any of the Guardians felt relieved by this – in fact, they felt even more trapped. Tooth looked from Jack to MiM, and her feathers ruffled threateningly.

"What are you doing here?" she asked MiM. "Why did you come here?"

Unlike with Jack, Lunar replied quickly to Toothiana's question. "I'm here to tell Lord Death about something that fell from the Moon, about the same time that the black blood disappeared from it."

"It was probably the Kishin that fell out of the Moon, for all we know," Bunny said. "How can we be so sure?" MiM shot back in a tone that was just as apprehensive. The Pooka glared at him while the Tooth Fairy moved to shield Jack from Lunar.

Breathing heavily, Jack looked up at MiM, and narrowed his eyes. "What..." he whispered, "...what do you want here?"

For some reason MiM hesitated. Then finally he replied, "I want to help, Jack." At that, the Fearling inside Jack hissed. _"He tried to kill you the last time you met, and now he says he wants to help?"_ The boy shuddered and shook his head.

Feeling the palpable tensiobn in the air, Lord Death decided to take over. "The shooting star that appeared after the Moon turned yellow again fell to Earth," he said, creating an image on the ornate mirror. "It landed on an uninhabited island in the middle of the English Channel." The image on the mirror-turned-screen showed a crater on a very tiny island, which was still smoking. "Whether it's the Kishin or not, we can't say. If it is, then he's already gone."

"And we have to catch him," North said, but the reaper nodded absently. He was deep in thought about what Maka had told him about the Battle on the Moon – how Crona utilized BREW, the demon tool, and the Mad Blood ability to seal Asura away. Now that the black blood was gone, and therefore Crona's protection, what had happened to Crona? And moreover, what happened to BREW?

Meanwhile, North was pensively staring at the mirror-turned-screen as well. "An uninhabited island in between England and France?" he said to himself. "Even if there are no children there, this does not appear on any of our maps."

"That's because that island only appeared after you disappeared, or so Father told me," Lord Death explained. "He wouldn't say anything besides the fact that there is a dark presence on the island, and it's the reason that no one lives there. I thought it was a prison of sorts."

"Or a place to keep something secret," Katherine suggested. "Like the Lunar Lamas in the Himalayas."

"The what?"

"Sorry – it was before you were born, I think," she told the reaper.

Nightlight began to stare at the mirror-turned-screen as well. A vague memory came to him about geography books – and the sheer number of them, too – and the little green fragments scattered on the blue ocean paper. But as with many of his other memories, it vanished before he could try to recall anything else.

"Do you think you can get a closer look at the island?" Bunnymund asked, peering at the image. "Think I see an animal or something there."

Lord Death looked back at the mirror, and, as if it were a video camera, it began to zoom in on the island. There were indeed creatures there at the site of the impact, and they were sniffing at the smoke, dangerously close to the its source. Soon enough, though, the Guardians' interests were piqued – these creatures looked like lionesses, but they were ghostly – as if they were made of smoke, and black smoke at that. One of them growled, a growl that sounded both like and unlike a lion's growl. Then they trotted off, and the screen blacked out again.

"What...what _were_ those?" Jack asked, still staring at the mirror. He turned to Lord Death, but MiM was the one to answer instead. "Those are shadow creatures, just like Nightmares and Fearlings," he explained. "I'm not sure what they're called, but I know that they are the minions of the Mother of the Witches."

" 'Mother'?" Lord Death asked. "You mean the Grandwitch?"

"No," Lunar shook his head, "someone much older than the Grandwitch. In fact, she may be the dark presence on that island."

"Yes, but if she's older than Grandwitch Mabaa herself, how come neither Father nor the witches ever mention her?"

"Because she surrendered to your father after Mother Goose sealed away Pitch Black."

"It's 'Starlight' now, actually," the spectral girl said as she turned to the shorter of them. "Kailash...died while fighting Pitch. She was trying to defend Soul Eater Evans." "...Oh," MiM looked a bit surprised. "I see." Katherine nodded, looking down and pursing her lips.

Lord Death looked back to Lunar again. "A witch that surrendered to my father before the Battle on the Moon? That seems very unlikely."

"But it did happen," MiM said, "and I'm sure she had her reasons for doing it."

"So we need to get to that island to examine the situation there." The reaper decided. "I myself cannot leave Death City – Father knows what would happen in my absence – so I have to entrust this mission to people who can handle it.

"Sounds like reasonable plan," North agreed. "Why don't _we_ undertake the mission instead? Might save Shibusen a lot of trouble." At his request, Lord Death began to consider it, and then after a few moments sighed. "Alright. But once you're done, you have to report to me about the situation."

"Yes," Katherine nodded, "we understand." Jack held up his arms. "Do you mind untying me?" he asked, and Lord Death waved his hand to make the tendrils disappear back into his robe.

As the Guardians turned to leave, MiM looked up at the reaper. "So, where do you think I should go from here?" he asked. Lord Death only looked at him. "I think you would be of more help on the island than here in Death City."

Having heard this, the Guardians turned back around, their faces reading varying degrees of shock. Inside Jack's chest, something twisted. He felt like there was a clawed creature scratching at his heart – and he probably wasn't wrong.

Tooth was the one to respond verbally. "W-what? What do you mean; he's more help with us?"

Lord Death seemed to raise his eyebrows under his mask. "Of course. It seems you have a lot of catching up to do, after all."

The winter spirit's heart felt cold as Lunar's gaze moved over to him, seemingly asking for approval. Well, if he wanted approval, he wasn't going to get it. Jack pursed his lips tight, and looked away, gulping down a wad of saliva.

"Lord Death's right," MiM remarked, his face unreadable as he walked towards the guillotine hallway and past the Guardians. "We haven't seen each other at all for the past hundred years."

He paused, and looked at them once more.

"Or rather, you haven't seen me at all for the past hundred years."


	5. Investigating

**(A/N: Sorry about the inconvenience. Will be fixing things shortly.)**

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><p>The sleigh ride to the island was quick and methodical. Get in, launch, snowglobe, destination. Very odd for someone like North. Jack had reason to believe that the cause of this was the man sitting in the back of the sleigh.<p>

When they landed, a thought (most likely from the Fearling) occurred to him: maybe he should have thrown MiM off the sleigh when he had the chance.

_Shut up._

The Guardians stepped out of the sleigh, looking around. The trees were numerous and spindly, and many of the bushes were thorny. The grass was tall around them; Sandy could barely see anything due to his height.

Katherine pursed her lips. Something felt wrong about this.

She looked to her right. MiM was already trudging through the grass; he was already a good distance away from her fellow Guardians. Somehow, this compelled the spectral girl to follow him. So follow she did. As she did, the Guardians had taken notice and started to follow her as well.

Katherine believed herself to be quite the silent flyer, but Lunar noticed her floating behind him anyway. He turned his head to look up at her for a moment, and she saw that his face was just as unreadable as it had been in the Death Room.

She disliked unreadable faces. They felt like plastic.

"I should've known you would be the first to follow me," Lunar turned back to the path in front of him, though where he was going she wasn't certain. "You're the one who's always looking out for everyone."

Katherine eyed him carefully. "Somehow I thought that description referred to you, too."

"Back when I was a Guardian, it would."

"So you're not a Guardian anymore?"

"That's up to you Guardians now." He sighed. "Not like I expected to feel welcome, though." She didn't think that he was wrong, but she wasn't going to say that.

Meanwhile, Jack watched them from his place, trailing behind the group despite how much faster he wanted to go. Katherine and MiM were talking about something. Somehow it affected him even though he didn't know what they were talking about.

_How can he act as if nothing was wrong with the people behind him?_

Jack was about to silence this thought as well, but then he realized that this one wasn't from his Fearling.

Something rustled in the bushes. He turned and pointed his staff at the threat almost instantly. By then the other Guardians had noticed as well, and he could hear North tensely drawing his swords.

A black lioness slowly crept out of the shrubbery, growling threateningly, baring its teeth at them. Jack held his staff tighter, wincing; not because of the fear, but because his Fearling was feeding off that fear. He breathed slowly and deliberately out of his nose.

In one fluid motion the black lioness pounced on him, roaring so loudly that it rang in his ears. Jack savagely kicked the shadow off of him, but it was undeterred by this and charged at him again just as he got up. It was about to strike, but Tooth flew in front of him just in time, dissolving it with her sharp wings.

The winter spirit stared at where it had once been, panting. Tooth came over to him, asking, "Jack, are you alright?" Before he could even nod, though, more growls sounded around them, and he turned to see more dark lionesses surrounding them as if the Guardians were their prey. He readied his staff once more.

Footsteps fell behind Katherine – human footsteps. She turned around to see a woman coming towards them, holding a long, thin sword. It was not the sharp black sword that could not be effaced from Katherine's memory, however. It was the blood dripping from the woman – the dark red covering her face and gown and soaking into her hair and going down her long-nailed fingers. The spectral girl tried not to gasp noisily, and instead extended an arm to shield Nightlight, who was standing next to her.

The woman looked over all of them, and narrowed her eyes. "Guardians," she recognized. Jack raised a hand, but still tightly held his staff in the other. "Yeah, that's us," he said, half-jokingly. The woman smiled at him humorlessly. "What business do you have on this island?"

"Something from the Moon crash-landed here last night, as you know." MiM had decided to take over. She looked at him. "Of course I know. Now, what is it and why do you want it so badly?"

"We're just coming here on Lord Death's orders to see what happened here."

"And why would Lord Death trouble himself over an object from space?"

"Because that object might be the Kishin."

The woman's face turned into one of surprise. Katherine saw Lunar try to hide a smirk – _sign of life,_ she thought, and it was at least better than plastic.

As for the blood-covered woman, she raised a hand to call off the black lionesses, and they vanished into shadows. Then she looked up at them, her face full of grave seriousness. "Follow me," she said, and turned back towards the spindly trees.

Jack stared after the woman. "Is that...?"

"Guess it is, mate," Bunny put his paws on his hips. "Mother of the Witches; formerly the Shadow in the Mirror, Bloody Mary."

The winter spirit nodded, and then his eyes wandered to where MiM was – but he had already gone after the woman.

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><p>"You don't need to thank me, you know," Bloody Mary said to her pursuer, who was busy trying to keep following her despite the various plants blocking his way.<p>

"I'm going to thank you anyway," MiM returned as he pushed a low branch out of his way. She stepped over a rock in the path. "Then, your welcome, Man in the Moon." Lunar paused. "How did you know that when you've never met me in person before?"

"None of the Guardians can speak as diplomatically as you do," Mary said. Then she half-smiled. "And all this time I thought you would be taller."

"Not the first time I've heard that," MiM retorted, though he sounded a little miffed.

Footsteps crunched through the tall grass. Mary simply said, "Your Guardians are catching up." MiM glanced behind him, and then sped up, until he was nearly stepping on the hem of her dress. She blinked, not looking at him. "Why are you so eager to avoid their company? Are you not their leader?"

"I don't think they would call me that," Lunar frowned. "And they aren't exactly 'my' Guardians anymore."

"Are you only comfortable talking with me because I've managed to stay in this world for five hundred years without disappearing?" The woman turned her sword in her hand. It showed a clear image of her pursuer's face. _Of course,_ MiM thought.

"You really shouldn't be. I've killed tons of people without remorse. The only reason I'm still here is because I surrendered to Lord Death." Through the metal blade of the sword, he could see Mary blink. "How is he, by the way; haven't got a scrap of news in about four hundred years."

"He's dead. His son has taken over his position now."

"Well," she tilted her head as they began to reach a clearing, "the great Lord Death dies, what irony. And I've never heard a thing about this son."

"You've missed a lot, Bloody Mary."

"So have you."

There was a silence between them before a while before Lunar decided to say, "The Protectors are dead, too." The half-smirk was back when it was Mary's turn to pause. She was frozen for a while – and so was the look of pure shock on her face – before the sound of footsteps came back and she was forced to trudge through the last of the tall grass.

"Shame," she rubbed at the blood on her face, "I liked fighting with them. Especially the Matchmaker. One stab to his wing and what was pain to him would be joy to me!"

She stopped. "Shame, indeed," Mary added, loud enough so that the Guardians could hear. When they finally caught up to Mary and MiM, the former pointed in front of herself with her sword.

"There it is," she told them. "Now investigate."

North was the first to come forward and slide down to the center of the crater. Following after him was Katherine, and then Bunny, and the rest came in their own time.

What they saw at the site was a strange mass; no longer smoky, and it appeared to be a creature of sorts. Tentatively, they came forward, Jack holding up his staff again cautiously.

What they had been approaching so tensely, though, turned out to be nothing more than a limp body – and they recognized it to be that of the Kishin Asura's. In the body's mouth was an ancient-looking book, which had scorch marks on its cover. The winter spirit's heart began to palpitate as he reached out with his staff to touch the body. It didn't move.

Suddenly, an anguished scream rang out. They all turned to see Lunar, wide-eyed and holding his head in his hands. Not only that, but he was gasping for air and hunched over – the very essence of panicked. Jack was about to ask if it was about the body when MiM shouted again.

"NOT YOU!" he yelled. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" At this the first pang of madness struck the winter spirit, and the Fearling inside him cackled.

Just as this happened, the body began to move. It got up on its knuckles and knees, and spit out the burned book in its mouth, Then it looked straight at him as it got to its feet – and Jack could feel indeed that this was the same Kishin they had fought 500 years ago. He raised his staff as the threat began to rise up on its tendrils of skin, like a snake getting ready to strike. In a second, strike it did – but then Jack quickly sent out a bolt of ice lightning towards it, freezing the skin tendrils in mid-air.

"Jack!"

The sound of Katherine's voice brought him back into reality. He blinked, and then realized that he had been hallucinating. The body was not alive, and the burnt book was still grotesquely placed in its mouth. What Jack had really done was send out large ice spikes in a circle around him to try and impale the Guardians; they had only been able to save their necks by either ducking under the spikes or pinning themselves to the crater walls, where the spikes had only stopped by half an inch short of their necks.

He looked around at what he had done, and then dropped his staff as he held his hands up. "Oh, no," he gasped, barely above a stage whisper. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't–!"

A shadow moved from the lip of the crater, past Jack, and straight to MiM. Out of this shadow Bloody Mary materialized, and she pointed her sword at Lunar's back – as if the ice spike nearly cutting his head off wasn't enough.

"What did you do?" she asked. "What happened?!"

MiM coughed, and looked at the woman without turning his head. "I didn't do anything," he said, almost hoarsely, "but I think I know who did this."


	6. Finding

**(A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner. Other fandoms got in the way. Oh well, I'll still continue this story. Don't worry.)**

* * *

><p>Even with that explanation, Mary still held the sword above his heart. "And are you seriously suggesting that the person who did this..." Before she could say anymore, though, MiM stared her down, and she trailed off.<p>

Mary sighed, and then pointed the sword away from him before turning it downwards. She then slammed it down onto the ground, and the ice shattered with the force of the blow. Jack flinched a little at the sound of the ice breaking.

"You should know that you have much to say to Lord Death about this," she warned MiM. He nodded, but still kept his eyes fixed on hers. She raised an eyebrow, and then turned away, summoning a black lioness out of her shadows.

"You, follow me," she said to MiM, "and the rest of you sort things out." With that, she jumped onto the shadow, and they sped up and out of the crater. MiM stared after her, and sighed, then tried to climb up the crater wall. One hand up, then a foot raised as another hand went up, and the first hand tried to feel around for another hold.

Suddenly, arms wrapped around him, under his arms, and he turned to see that it was Katherine who was lifting him up to the lip of the crater. When she finally set him down, at the top, MiM looked round at her.

"Thank you," he said, sounding a bit stunned.

"Don't mention it," the spectral girl smiled faintly, and drifted back to the center, where the Guardians were. Lunar stared after her glowing form, and then turned his head in the direction of where Mary left.

* * *

><p>Katherine couldn't help but notice that most of the Guardians were staring at her obtrusively when she came back. She tried not to show her discomfort as she landed next to Nightlight, and looked up to face them.<p>

"You have any idea about what happened here?" Bunny asked, in an attempt to dispel the tension in the air. Tooth followed accordingly. "Judging by the scorch marks on this book," she gingerly took the book out of the body's mouth as she said this, "all the black blood was not just driven away; it was evaporated from the Moon by something hot enough to even burn it out of the Kishin's body."

She stared at the book a little, and then dropped it to the ground. Jack and North moved to support her, but she held a hand up while the other went to her head. "It's fine," she said. "But we have to get rid of this book. It has a high level of insanity in it." Jack looked down at the book again, and inhaled sharply, realizing that Tooth was right. He inched a little away from it while Katherine spoke up.

"But I don't understand," she said. "The Moon is far away enough from any source of heat. What could possibly generate enough..." Her grey eyes widened as she trailed off.

"Katherine?" North asked in a concerned tone. Her mouth fell open, yet she could not say anything.

It seemed to her that the scorch marks on the book had begun to look like hand-prints.

* * *

><p>MiM had finally caught up to Bloody Mary after several minutes of searching through shrubbery. She was still riding her shadow-lioness, and didn't even turn around to look at him.<p>

"You took quite a while," she said, amused. He pursed his lips. "If I had a staff and more holds on the crater wall, it might have been easier."

"You had about four Guardians with the ability to fly, though; you could have asked them for help."

He looked back – was Katherine's assistance still on his mind? – and then shook his head. "I don't _have_ Guardians, Mary."

"So we're on first-name basis now?" the woman raised her eyebrows. "About five hundred years ago you would have declared war against me." "I can't now because you've declared yourself a Neutral ever since Pitch was sealed away."

"Contrary to what your history would tell you," this time she turned around to look at him while her lioness continued walking, "I didn't surrender after Pitch lost, I'm the reason why Lord Death knew where they were that night. Where _you_ were that night."

"You would betray the man who raised you from the dead?"

"You betrayed your Guardians."

"I..." MiM looked down at his feet, and Mary was pleased to know she had wounded him. He looked back up at her. "Where are you taking me?"

They had begun to walk into a dark cave, and Lunar slowed down to feel his way around. Mary turned back to the front to hold on closer to the lion, who was already experienced enough with the cave walls to not slip. She led him further into the cave until there was nearly no more light left to guide MiM inside. He had the notion that the Mother of the Witches could see just fine in the dark, though – she kept warning him about incoming stalagmites and nagging him to "watch his step".

"Here it is," she said after some time, getting off the shadow-lioness and patting it on the head before leaning down to move some rocks out of the way. Finally she picked up a strange, long object, and one could see that it was metallic enough to shine in what little light was available.

"I believe this is yours," Mary said, handing it to him. Lunar grabbed it from her, and recognized it from the feel of it. It was, of course, his old moon-staff.

"Why would the former Lord Death even hide this here?" MiM said, still relishing the touch of the cool stardust-metal. "This is only useless for someone who doesn't know how to use it."

"One of Lord Death's little friends made some improvements to it," Mary explained, getting back on her shadow-lioness. The lion turned around and began trotting back to the mouth of the cavern. MiM looked once more at the moon-staff in his hand, and then followed after her.

* * *

><p>"Katherine?"<p>

"Katherine, what's wrong?"

She tried to blink. Her head hurt.

"Katherine?"

_Hand-prints on the book. Someone touched it. Only one person could have touched it like that._

_But..._

She put her hands to her head, wringing her hair. Nightlight's own hand was reaching out to her, but she didn't really want to react. Not when the scorch marks were staring at her.

_...but..._

"Katherine?"

She looked up at the sound of Nightlight's voice. She felt strangely breathless, and straightened up.

"That book..." she turned back to it, and narrowed her eyes. The Guardians watched as she almost reached to pick it up, but instead settled for just pointing at it. "...do you know any other way it could get those scorch marks?" Nightlight followed her finger, and then his pale green eyes widened. His look of worry was shared by the other Guardians as well.

"You can't possibly mean..." Tooth trailed off. Katherine nodded. "I know it's her."

"But didn't you and Maka Albarn see her die?" Jack asked, moving his staff from one hand to another. The spectral girl looked to him, her face showing a revelation. "I don't think...that was it at all..." she said slowly. "We only...we only saw her fall, we didn't see her dead." She looked down at her feet. As she did so, Nightlight blinked, and for a moment he smelled fire – warm smoky smell – but it was gone before he looked up to see where it was coming from.

"But what happened to the Kishin?" Bunny asked. "What could have possibly made him like...this?" He gestured to the body as if to prove his point. The Guardians mulled over it for some time, and then a dreamsand light bulb appeared over Sandy's head.

"What is it, Sandy?" North asked. Sandy replied by showing them an image of a body, then a soul, then a book. Nightlight nodded in understanding, but Jack stared as Sandy repeated the sequence, quite confused. "Uh...what?" he asked, squinting a little.

Sandy all but rolled his eyes, conjured a giant dreamsand hand, and picked up the charred book with it. He then proceeded to show a picture of the Kishin's eye, and then an arrow pointing down at the book. At least this the Guardians could now easily understand.

"So...what you're saying is that the Kishin became sealed in that book?" Jack said after a pause, pointing at the book. The Sandman nodded. The winter spirit looked down at it, suddenly feeling the supposed dread that was felt whenever something bad was about to happen. He licked his upper lip anxiously, and then sighed.

"We have to get back."

"I agree."

The Guardians looked up to see Bloody Mary at the lip of the crater. She stared down at them, seemingly passive if it weren't for the excited (thrilled?) look in her eyes. "You can't stay here forever standing around a dead body; you've got to report to Lord Death."

"Yeah, we know," Jack said, floating back up to the top, with Sandy and Katherine in tow. "Can you tell us where the sleigh is?" The woman pointed a thin finger towards a black lioness. "She'll show you the way." He looked from the lion to her, and raised his eyebrows. "Thanks," he responded, a little quietly. He was just about to go over to it when Mary placed a hand on his arm.

"Frost," she said delicately, "it can lock the demon tool back into place."

"Huh? The lion?" Jack asked, and Mary blinked, as if she had never meant to say what she just said. "I don't know," she answered. "Go ask someone else."

A little put off by the awkwardness of the situation, Jack pulled his hand back. "Yeah. Alright." He turned back towards the shadow-lioness, and it turned around and started walking. Sandy and Katherine were already following behind it, and the other Guardians were coming out of the crater, and Jack didn't have much choice but to follow them. He gave one last glance at the bleeding woman they were leaving behind, but she was already gone.

* * *

><p>They trekked through the sharp shrubbery, trying to be as agile as the dark animal was. All the while Katherine's thoughts wandered from the book Sandy was carrying – <em>it carries the Kishin's soul, no wonder it feels wrong – <em>to where Lunar was. Maybe they had left him behind? She wanted to ask, but MiM was really such a sensitive topic at the time so she felt she should just let it drop. He'll probably run into them eventually.

The lion stopped in the middle of a grassy plain, and then it vanished. When it did, the Guardians found themselves standing in front of North's sleigh. North let out a long, tired sigh, and started walking towards it. "Time to go and see what becomes of this," he said, but then stopped.

Bunny came forward. "Why? What is it?" North pointed to something inside the sleigh, and the Pooka followed his finger to a certain moon-staff sticking out of it, and then to its owner who was scratching something on the side with his nails.

"Hey!" Bunnymund shouted, loud enough to break MiM from his trance. He looked over his shoulder blankly while Bunny continued. "What're you doin' down there? Tryin' to hurt yourself or somethin'?" Lunar looked from him to his carving – still unseen – and then back to who was talking to him. "Or something," he said, straightening up and sitting down on a seat, holding on to his moon-staff. The Pooka narrowed his eyes, but in the end gruffly asked him to move over to make room for the others. While MiM did so, Tooth and Sandy told North that they would be flying to Death City ahead of them, and so Tooth fluttered away in the direction of America while Sandy made himself a dreamsand convertible and sped off with the burnt book still on his person.

That left Bunny, Nightlight, Katherine and Jack to share the backseat with the elephant in the room. The winter spirit moved to stand behind the driver's seat, while Bunny moved closer to the other end of the sleigh (if he threw up, well, at least it wouldn't be inside the vehicle). Katherine and Nightlight sat down in the middle, the spectral girl being the closest to MiM.

"Alright, everyone settled?" North asked, turning to look at them. "Yeah," the Guardians chimed (with Bunny sounding a little anxious to get it over with). But Santa didn't even wait for the elephant in the room to respond before he snapped the reins, and they were headed for Shibusen once more.


	7. Reporting

The silence in the sleigh was overwhelming yet again. Katherine's eyebrows creased. Someone had to say _something._ Blankly, she looked down at the spot that Lunar's leg had been obscuring – what he had been carving moments before. Her grey eyes caught the word _can't_ and then she started reading before she knew it. It was a short message – all it said was

_**can't be you**_

_**can't be you**_

_**can't be you**_

_**can't be you**_

over and over again, like a child writes statements repeatedly on a chalkboard as punishment. Was this some kind of punishment? Katherine squinted, and then a hand fell on her shoulder.

"You're more observant than I thought," MiM's deep voice whispered, "Starlight." She looked up at him, and thought that she saw pain. _Might just be me wanting to humanize him._ "You can call me Katherine," she whispered back – _who are we afraid will hear us? –_ and he removed his hand from her shoulder. "Alright then." She glanced once more at the carving, and then at his scratched right fingernails (_how long had he been doing that?_) before opening her mouth once more.

"...You've seen her too, haven't you?" Frankly, the sudden reappearance of the moon-staff weighed heavier on her minds than the others, but she thought it was best that she ask this one first.

"You mean the Woman in the Sun?" he said bluntly, his face hard to read. "Yes, I have. That's why I screamed." He turned and tried to look at her again. "It's not the first time, though. She's always coming to me in dreams. I never believed she was dead."

"You knew we thought she was dead?"

"Yes. But your reports say you never found the body, so what cause is there to think she's really dead?" MiM half-chuckled. "Granted, there was no body left over when Sanderson died, but the way he died, it was hardly a surprise, consumed by all that sand.

"But you say she fell. Adding that to your 'no body found', I assumed she simply flew away." Katherine stared at him, and then put a finger to her chin. "What's she planning? Why would she have to take the Kishin's body away from the Moon and seal his and Crona's souls into a book?"

"She had to take something. It must have been important, else she wouldn't have spent a hundred years planning for this." MiM looked from her to his moon-staff. Katherine stared up at it as well. "Where did you get that?" she pointed at it. Lunar smiled. "The woman on that island isn't as bad as I thought."

From the front of the sleigh, Jack watched them, and wished he could tear his eyes away from them. He pursed his lips, and then turned to North. "How much longer to Death City?"

"Not very long," Santa Claus said as he finally pulled out a snowglobe, which began to show the castle-esque school of Shibusen.

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><p>"So, the body of the Kishin is entirely harmless on that island?" Lord Death asked, crossing his arms.<p>

"Yeah," Bunny nodded. "We did find this book, though." Sandy came forward, still holding the burnt book, and handed it to the reaper, who took it at once and stared down at it. "I can't believe it; after all these years..." Dare he flip through it? After what he experienced, probably not. "...Do you know what this is? This is the Book of Eibon. I haven't seen this book in a long, long time."

"Sandy thinks the Kishin's soul is inside that book," Tooth added. Lord Death nodded. "He's probably not wrong. Also, maybe Crona's soul is in here, too."

"Crona?" North asked, raising an eyebrow. Katherine held up her book. "The one who sealed away the Kishin using the black blood. Maka talked about him* a lot." She turned to a page that showed, somehow, a drawing of Crona (possibly Maka had told her what the Demon Swordsman looked like). Lord Death glanced at the book, and said, "Crona was actually a little thinner than that, and the hair was shorter."

"Oh, sorry," the spectral girl looked up at him. He replied, "No, it's...fine."

"We also suspect that the Woman in the Sun was the one that did this to the Moon," MiM finally said. "The scorched portions on the cover are probably where she touched the book." Lord Death looked back at the cover, and under his mask, his eyes widened.

"The Woman in the Sun..." he sighed. "Of course. Maybe I should have looked more into that, but the case went cold." The reaper tucked the Book of Eibon into his robe. "This is bad. I think she took the demonic tool BREW – that's why she went to the Moon and evaporated the black blood."

"What do you think she's going to use it for?" Katherine asked. Lord Death sighed. "One could use BREW for anything; it is a completely amoral tool, as well as immensely powerful. And in the wrong hands, it could do more damage than we could ever think possible."

He turned back towards the mirror in the Death Room, looking at his reflection. _How much had changed since we had to deal with something like this again...?_ Lord Death looked back down to the book in his hand. The old insanity was inside there, but seemingly pressurized. He could easily fight it, or at least control it. He remembered feeling this for the first time, how it made him so vulnerable...

Katherine looked at the reaper, and then to Jack. Jack was looking down at the ground, his lips pursed. She didn't know what to say to him, even though she felt that she could sense the conflicting emotions inside of him. She turned her head to where MiM was standing, and wasn't surprised to see that he had the same expression as Jack had on his face.

_They're not so different, those two._

"You can go now," Lord Death said suddenly, and the Guardians looked up at the sound of his voice. "I'll have to think this over, and see what we can do about it. Though if you find a solution before me, I'll be glad to hear it."

"Yes, sir," Katherine said, and they nodded to the reaper before leaving the room. Lord Death looked down to the book in his hand, and like the leaving Guardians, felt an overwhelming sense of dread.

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><p><strong>(AN: * - What is Crona's gender? No one knows, but I just put the pronoun "him" because it is grammatically correct and not because of preference for a male Crona.**

**Sorry if this was so short, I just ran out of material for this chapter. Hopefully the next one will be a little longer, and fix a few plot holes that you might have already noticed.)**


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